Isaiah l



(No Model.)

I. L. ROBERTS. SEPARATING PARTITION FOR GALVANIO BATTERIES.

No. 394,613. Patented Dec. 18, 1888.

WITNESSES INVENTOR JR 6 f v 7 Babel/LI. flaberzs QMxM Byus flfiorney UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ISAIAH I.. ROBERTS, OF BROOKLYN, ASSIGNOR TO THE ROBERTSJBREVOORT ELECTRIC COMPANY, (LIMITED,) OF NE\V YORK, N. Y.

SEPARATlNG-PARTITION FOR GALVANIC BATTERIES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 394,613, dated December 18, 1888.

Original application filed May 5, 1887, Serial No. 237,259. Divided and this application filed July 25, 1888. Serial No. 280,976- (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ISAIAH L. ROBERTS, a

' resident of the city of Brooklyn, county of Kings, and State of New York, and a citizen of the I nited States, have made a new and useful Improvement in Electric Batteries, of which the following is such a full, clear, and exact description as will enable others skilled in the art to practice the same.

I11 conjunction with Henry II. Brevoort I have filed an application for Letters Patent May l, 1886, Serial No. 200,847, for improvement in electric batteries, consisting, mainly, of a separating partition or diaphragm, upon opposite sides of which the liquids of a twofluid battery can be placed, and through which diaphragm or partition the liquids as such will not to an injurious extent in practice physically pass, although in and through the substance of the diaphragm chemical action may take place. For this purpose we made the diaphragm or partition partially or wholly of a gelatinous or jelly-like character, the action of which we believe to be thus explained: Such a partition forms a non-porous substantially solid homogeneous wall, whose particles, while sufficiently solid and compact to maintain their own positions, and so prevent for practical purposes any transmission of fluids between or through them, are yet themselves able to act as electrolytes and suffer such decompositions and recombinations as are essential to the electrolytic transmission of electric force.

My present invent-ion consists in making these gelatinous or jelly-like partitions or diaphragms with the aid of mineral substances, from which materials of gelatine character can be produced. I preferably saturate or impregnate a suitable support or holder with these mineral gelatinous substances, employing as a support or holder, preferably, a porous cup, so that the pores of the separatingdiaphragm are closed by the mineral. gelatine.

I prefer cup-shaped diaphragms or partitions, because they do not require to be fastened to the walls or bottom of the vessel which is to be divided into compartments. Thus a porous cup of baked earthenware I find convenient. Such a cup may be of any wellknown for1nsuch, for instance, as that illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a perspective view of the cup or separating-diaphragm A; and Fi 2 is a vertical section of a two-cell battery, B, containing the cup or separating-(Iiaphragm A, but without the electrodes.

It is known in practical chemistry that cer tain mineral substances can be turned into what are known as gelatinous substances. Thus silicate of soda or of potash can by treatment with an acid or metallic salt be turned into a gelatinous mass. So, also, the salts of tinsuch as the stannates and chloridescan be gelatinized, the stannates by treatment with an acid, the chlorides by treatment with an alkali, thus in both cases precipitating in gelatinous form the stannic or silicic oxides. The salts of aluminium mayalso be gelatinized by treatment with an alkali. The various mineral substances which can be gelatinized are numerous, and works on chemistry will give an account of them. I need not, therefore, mention them at length.

As one method of carrying my invention into effect, I take a porous cup, preferably of baked earthenware, very porous, and I saturate this by soaking it, say, from two to ten hoursthe longer the better-in an aqueous solution of silicate of soda or potash. The solution should be just thin enough to enable it to penetrate the pores of the cup. Heat may be used to hasten the saturation of the cup. \Vhen the cup is thoroughly saturated, I dip itsay for an hourin muriatic acid, which I prefer, or the salts of a metal, such as chloride of iron. These substances cause the silicate to deposit silica in the shape of a gelatinous mass in the pores of the holder. \Vhen this is accomplished, the separatingpartition is formed by the walls of the porous cup having its pores closed with the mineral gelatinous mass. It is evident that this can be done with all of the various substances which form what I call mineral gelatinous masses.

This is a division of an application filed by me May 5, 1887, Serial No. 237,259, and I do not herein claim, broadly, a separating partition or diaphragm consisting of a porous substance impregnated with 'inineral gelatinous material, or a diaphragm or partition partly or Wholly of mineral or gelatinous material, or, broadly, mineral gelatinous material combined with a holder, or, broadly, a porous substance having its pores closed with gelatinized silicate of soda or potash, such matters being the subject of claim in my said application, of which this is a division.

lVhat I claim hereinis- 1. A separating partition or diaphragm for an electric battery, consisting of earthenware having its pores closed with gelatinous material, substantially as described.

2. A separating partition or diaphragm for an electric battery, consisting of earthenware having its pores closed with gelatinized silicate of soda or potash.

In testimony of all which I have hereunto subscribed my name.

ISAIAH L. ROBERTS.

lVitnesses:

JOSEPH L. LEVY, IINIARCUS S. HOPKINS. 

